Planning Ahead for a Disaster

The wildfire near our house (September 2022)

​The recent natural disasters across the globe, including the wildfires and floods in Portugal, have been a somber reminder of the importance of preserving important documents during such horrific events. Due to our move overseas, we devised a way to do this, and figured we’d share it with you.

​Almost everyone has their own method of keeping track of vital information. Harold’s mother stored hers in a file folder, pertinent documents neatly paper-clipped together. When it came time to plan her funeral and settle her estate, everything we needed was right in that folder.

My parents were just the opposite. It took me forever to find all the life insurance policies and other important documents that were randomly stored throughout the house. Searching for those papers just added to the stress of closing their estate.

Since Harold and I don’t have children, someone else will need to deal with our estate, both in Portugal and in the U.S. Because of this we’ve tried to organize our records in such a way that it’s not going to be a giant hassle (hopefully). This isn’t a onetime thing, either, but an ongoing project.

When we decided to move overseas, we needed a way to relocate our personal and business files. In my case, that was seven years’ of paperwork neatly tucked in banker’s boxes. So. Much. Paper.

Ms. Dali and one of the those boxes. This one contained books.

​For each convention, conference, or event I attended as an author, I preserved all the documentation for the travel, lodging and meals for income tax purposes. The manila envelopes for each event were tucked into the corresponding years’ storage box.

Why go to all that work? Well, if the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ever audited my business, I would need those files, and that audit could come years down the line. Same for our personal finances. Since we only shipped a 100 cubic meter pallet to Portugal, the banker’s boxes would have taken too much space. 

So I digitized all of it. We bought a Canon scanner that also handles film negatives and slides, because I have a couple boxes of those as well. The actual scanning took many months, one receipt at a time, one manila envelope at a time. Those files were stored on both my laptop and on OneDrive, each placed in the proper event’s folder, and then filed under the specific year.

In case something happened to my laptop, I also have Carbonite do a full backup of my computer each day. Once the scanning was done I had the files professionally shredded to guard the personal information. We did the same with the family photos we wanted to save.

Then there’s The Big Green Binder, as we call it, because there is a lot of paperwork we immigrants need to have on hand when dealing with our new home’s bureaucracy. Paperwork like apostilled birth certificates and FBI reports, our marriage license, social security docs, insurance policies, immigration paperwork, tax returns, you name it. The binder is well over 3” thick (7.6cm+) so it’s totally crammed full. 

Having those documents organized in plastic sleeves in a binder made it a lot easier to find what we need rather than rummaging around in a desk drawer. A couple times a year I cull the outdated docs and replace them as needed. That way everything is current and ready for the next official appointment.
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But in case something happens to that binder while we’re not at home, the contents have been scanned, stored on OneDrive, and backed up in the Cloud. Because bad stuff does happen no matter how much we plan ahead. Do I particularly trust the Cloud to keep my info safe? Maybe. That’s a personal decision, for sure. Totally your call on that. 

We still use our scanner at least weekly. Receipts (faturas) for service or repair work are scanned and stored in the appropriate folders as some of that might become important when we eventually sell our home. Same for major purchases, medical reports that we can’t access via our hospital’s website, and such. Our HSA (Health Savings Account) folder has all the receipts we need to file for reimbursement. We have also archived our income tax forms, both U.S. and Portugal, and bank and credit card statements. And, in my case, all my writing and publishing files are backed up.
 
Since we live on a mountain with lots of forest nearby, during the fire season we keep our green binder tucked in a backpack ready to go. We also pack a “Go Bag” with medications, as well as a small suitcase with a few clothes. We developed that strategy during the first summer we were in our new house after a fire erupted only a few fields down the hill from us (see image at top of post). It moved quickly. Luckily the bombeiros (firefighters) moved quicker. But it was a lesson learned and now the Bug Out Backpack is ready to go should we be ordered to evacuate.

We also created a checklist because when you’re in an emergency situation it’s hard to think. Our list has tasks like turning off the gas to the house, closing the shutters, pulling back the curtains, and remembering to grab our wallets and our beloved cat’s ashes on the way out of the door.

What might you need if you have to leave your home in a hurry? Here’s a list I saw on Facebook recently:

Passports/Visa
Birth Certificate
Home Insurance Documents
Car Insurance Documents & Registration
Driver’s License
Health Documents, Medical Cards, Medical History
Medications
Employment Records
Tax Returns
Social Security Documents & Card
Credit Cards
Will & Power of Attorney
Marriage License
Bank Statements
All Military Records
Veterinary Records for Pets
Thumb Drive with Video of each room, closet contents, basement, garage, attic, including artwork

This is our disaster plan. We sincerely hope we’ll never have to use it.